You hear about it. People tell you it's real. However, until you encounter it yourself, you never quite know what it's all about...in what form it will spring up...or what areas of your life will be affected by it. Personally, I haven't experienced it for a long time. Not to the extent I did just yesterday.
After being excited over attaining an on-call position at Catholic Charities (yay), I called a few people to share the good news. One lady I called is a dear friend who works full-time at Catholic Charities. She was thrilled for me and we agreed that God is doing great things in my life right now. Then, a warning. It's truly wonderful to make your life's work about helping others...however...there is a dark side to it. A constant battle of spiritual warfare that must be guarded against and taken seriously.
Oh, I told her she was right and that, yes, I would watch for it. Sad to admit, I only took it half seriously. After all, what kind of a threat am I? I'm not doing all that much...not as much as others. And, I probably won't deal with it full-on until I'm officially working there. Right? WRONG!
Not long after our conversation ended, my husband and I got into an argument or, better to say, we became highly irritated with each other over something that was trivial and really didn't deserve the type of attention we gave it. Not to mention, that I was being highly sensitive to something that normally would not have bothered me at all. Attack Number 1.
We reconciled shortly after and things were fine. I went about my day. Had some banter on the discussion boards with some PC and PL people. Then, a particularly irritable person began attacking those of differing opinions. I jumped in. Thankfully, he seemed to ignore my points because they were not really disputable, anyway, and I tempered my words carefully so as not to be cruel, but state the truth and facts. After that, I was attacked by someone else who became quite frustrated with my Pro Life stance as well as my Catholic views on things. Ugh...really? It was exhausting and really took it out of me. Attack Number 2.
Finally, it was the end of the evening. I got to see one of my most favorite people (a friend's son who needed a ride home - yay) and was spending the evening at home with Bill after that. Things were going well, although, I was not very happy with the way my fish turned out, but that's more of a Julia Childs-type story! LOL Anyway, as we sat down to do our Bible Study, we decided to quickly put to paper our Lenten commitments for this year. Amazingly, we got into an even bigger disagreement not four items into our list. And, something that should have warranted a simple disagreement that could be discussed, turned into a really ridiculous and emotional conversation. WHAT? What was going on here??? Seriously? Really? I was at a real loss. I didn't know what to do at this point because I felt like I had been kicked around plenty this day. Luckily for us, God is stronger than any demon that can try to stand against us. Bill and I were able to calmly discuss matters and resolve the issue in a manner that should have been our first response. Ugh. Sigh. Lessons learned. Attack Number 3.
So, in the matter of one afternoon...after one delightful phone call and feeling filled with God's purpose...I was knocked about for the remainder of the day by Satan and his little helpers. Oh yes, people, spiritual warfare is VERY real. I should have thought to pray after I got off the phone with my friend. Prayer would have protected me...protected us. Lesson learned, indeed.
Guard yourselves carefully. The closer you are to the truth and leading your life right, the harder things will become. And, it's never in the way you expect it, but the attacks will come. It may be in an area that has nothing to do with the good thing you've done or are going to do...but it will come. And, I've found in my particular case, it will usually come at me through the thing I love most in this world...my loving and devout husband. We underestimated the ability of one so evil to enter our lives. We cannot allow that to happen again. Pray for God's Grace, His Mercy and also, for His Protection. Sometimes, we take for granted that He is always there...watching us...but we forget to call upon Him when we should. Amen.
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